Apple, The Font Nightmare.

flick justiceflick justice
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I wade through piles of fonts, to many to piss around dumping them in my Systems font Folder. I have NEVER been happy with any Font Management Tools <enter Suitcase and Font Reserve>. Fontagent was close but not there. I want reliable, useful, stable Font Management. I'd like to see Apples Brain Pulse over this for a while <not to long> and spit out iFont like only apple can. System wide font management, REAL auto activation, Simple Font Previewing, Stylish Intuitive Interface. Apple Produces awesome apps, why haven't they Tackled this tarnish yet?

Apple? Please? <reinstalling Font reserve for the umpteenth time>.

flick.

sorry for the random caps. bad habit.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    artman @_@artman @_@ Posts: 2,546member
    You know? Having unique fonts is cool (being a graphic designer myself) but I really know that it ain't the font that makes the mark...it's the design. So I really don't have many issues with fonts because I really don't go overboard with the next big font thang...(I use Suitcase by the way).
  • Reply 2 of 10
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    I've got to disagree with you on whether Apple should come out with an 'iFont' for one reason: most people don't ever use fonts managers. I consider myself a pro user, but I've never added a font. This whole font thing is so far removed from what most users would EVER need, I'd prefer that Apple use their resources more wisely. Just MHO, of course.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    flick justiceflick justice Posts: 632member
    I agree. However, you get fonts from clients for logos, You need to store them. for what ever reason I have loads of fonts. My Point is font management sucks in 10. Apple makes great apps. Apple should make a font management tool. yes?

    flick.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    artman @_@artman @_@ Posts: 2,546member
    <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/font.html"; target="_blank">?</a>
  • Reply 5 of 10
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Apple actually has basic font management built in for the first time, in the form of the font panel [edit: See Artman's link above]. As of Jaguar, Carbon apps can support it (although they'll have to be updated to do so). If your applications can't open the font panel, they're as yet unupdated Carbon apps. Bug their developers to issue a patch.



    Give it a good workout (you might need a Cocoa app to summon it for the time being), and if something's missing, send feedback. Apple is quite proud of OS X's font handling if <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0100676/"; target="_blank">Ken Bereskin's weblog</a> is any indication, and even if a lot of people will never have a need for the font panel, Apple is aware that a lot of their customers do need such a thing. They're listening.



    [ 02-07-2003: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 10
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    From Apple's font page:

    [quote]

    It's best to use serif fonts for small text body sizes, and reserve the use of sans serif fonts (sans is French for "without") for headlines and other short pieces of text.

    <hr></blockquote>



    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> That was funny, because they're using a sans serif font for that text and it's SMALL.



    [ 02-07-2003: Message edited by: torifile ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 10
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    [quote]Originally posted by torifile:

    <strong>I've got to disagree with you on whether Apple should come out with an 'iFont' for one reason: most people don't ever use fonts managers. I consider myself a pro user, but I've never added a font. This whole font thing is so far removed from what most users would EVER need, I'd prefer that Apple use their resources more wisely. Just MHO, of course.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Since Macs are heavily used in graphics and the creative arts, I'd expect Apple to address (and solve) this issue before I would Microsoft or some other company.



    Being a "pro" user probably has less to do with it than what you're actually doing or where you're working. The last three jobs I've worked at, we've had the entire Letraset library AND Adobe's Font Folio. There's no way in hell I'm going to load all of those fonts (thousands!) into the standard system font files to be always on and making my font menus four miles long.







    If you're working in graphic design, you - for one reason or another - usually want or need access to lots of fonts. Either self-contained, on your own OR in the instances when (if you're working at a print shop, service bureau, ad department, etc.) someone sends you outside files and you need to quickly (and perhaps only temporarily?) access their fonts to properly output the job.



    Type management/organization is HUGE on Macs, considering who the large chunk of their customer base is.



    I would think so, anyway.



    :confused:



    I love having bazillions of fonts at my disposal...BUT, more than that, I want to be able to turn them on, shut them off, group them by style, project, personal taste, etc.



    I don't know anyone working in the field I am who is not using ATM Deluxe, Suitcase, FontAgent, etc. to some degree.



    The system fonts are about all I want appearing in my menus 24/7, by default. Everything else, I want to activate/deactivate at will, depending on what I'm doing and all.



    I'd love to see Apple apply the coolness they put to iTunes, Keynote, iCal, etc. to a cool, easy-to-use font management app.



    Actually almost makes sense for them to tackle it over everyone else: it's THEIR machines!



  • Reply 8 of 10
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Hmm...reading Artman's link, perhaps they have. I guess the apps I use need to be updated to support that panel thing, huh?



    Oh well. Getting closer. That's interesting.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    The Fonts panel already creates custom and pre-defined collections of Fonts. It could use some more polish, mainly in terms of editing (a fairly minor quibble), and maybe should (is this necessary in OS X?) be able to load/unload font collections for graphics people with thousands of fonts. But it's a nice tool.



    I use Cocoa apps for the mostpart, but I think a lot of people have very little experience or knowledge of what OS X is capable of because so far only Cocoa developers have taken full advantage of the system. While people rightly claim that Carbon apps can be as good as any Cocoa app, I've found that Carbon apps have not delivered on that potential, and that Cocoa apps actualize on theirs.



    Bug Adobe, Macromedia and other Carbon developers to tap into this framework more. It's close to being what everyone wants, for either pro or casual users.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    there IS a font sampler utility built in to OS X that will output your fonts in their respective faces ready for print and reference.



    Go to Applications---AppleScript folder---and double click on Script Menu.menu. (A teensy scroll will appear in the top right side of the menu bar.)



    Then, press on the tiny scroll icon, slide down the menu to Info Script, slide left onto Font Sampler, release and the entire collection of fonts appears before your eyes, ready for a simple Print command.



    maybe not practical if you have the whole font folio loaded, but so many people beef that the Jaguar doesn't do this easily, and there's a two-click solution that most people aren't aware of.



    try it.



    (opens textedit to create the sampler... once open you can combine this functionality with the font panel's &lt;command-T&gt; preview of other collections to add any that didn't get automatically picked up (my .dfont files seem not to get listed... ymmv)



    still... a nice feature
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